Throughput analysis of LAN and WAN network based on socket buffer length using JPerf

Abstract

Cluster computing involves connection between a server and multiple hosts in one single environment and multi-cluster in inter-cluster environments. One of the crucial factors of a clustering is its network communication. Relying for support of a server-client internetworking, cluster computing uses the TCP/IP socket communication mechanism extensively. Mechanism that controls the data transfer interruptions between a server and client is referred to as a flow control. Theoretically, if the receive window size for TCP/IP buffers is too small, the receive window buffer is frequently overrun, and the flow control mechanism stops the data transfer until the receive buffer is empty. Thus, as a result flow control activity contributes to unnecessary additional network latency which is unacceptable in any server-client networking especially in clustering environment where it involves highly reliable data transfer. Among the solutions to this problem is by adjusting buffer size to avoid or reduce the potential for flow control to occur. This paper describes the analysis of TCP/IP socket buffer length in Local Area Network (LAN) and Wide Area Network (WAN) clustering. It details the process and flow of setting up the environment, implementing as well as analyzing the throughput performance of the measured buffering.